The city council in Tulsa, Oklahoma, decided this week to reject the construction of a massive Islamic centre and mosque. The rejection comes after the local city planning office said yes to the mosque construction on 18 December. In the meantime, there has reportedly been a heated debate. A public meeting on the plans ahead of the political debate attracted over a thousand participants, and the debate is said to have lasted four hours.

The land for the planned Islamic centre in Tulsa was purchased in 2014 by the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT). The organisation was established in 1973 in Indiana by students who had immigrated to the US, i.e. by the Muslim Students Association (MSA) in the US and Canada. According to several sources, both organisations are affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Mosque and Islamic centre on 15 acres in Tulsa

The Islamic Society of Tulsa is the user of the centre, which in addition to the mosque will include a free health clinic and food service. The facility is planned to span 15 acres, or more than 11 football fields, but the local authority ultimately said no, by four votes to one. The decision was made on the basis that it involved the rezoning of agricultural land, writes the newspaper The Christian Post. They say that the debate has been heated since last year, and that the open meeting was packed.

Crowded at open meeting about the mosque

The Christian newspaper writes:

More than 400 residents, and from both sides, took the floor during Monday’s meeting. Supporters emphasised religious freedom, community integration and the need for more space to relieve overcrowding at existing facilities in the Tulsa area. As many as 10,000 Muslims live there.

Trondheim also has at least 10,000 Muslims, although it is a much smaller city, according to those who are converting a listed warehouse in the Nidelven docklands to convert it into a grand mosque. Without the slightest hint of debate, judging from the local press. Something different then in the US.</p
<“We want nothing more than the freedom to pray peacefully and to contribute positively to society,” said one participant in Tulsa. According to the Christian newspaper, opponents of the mosque development were most concerned about traffic congestion, stormwater management, floodplains, parking and other logistical challenges.

Then they can’t possibly have read the comments section on their own sharing of the issue on Facebook, where there are more than enough critics of Islamic expansion among the over a thousand comments.

«Certainly you were allowed to be in the United States, because you accepted it as a place where you wanted to live the rest of your life, as an American. That should mean that you become a part of society, not that you are going to convert entire neighbourhoods, and reach 15 goals, to your Islamic country, the country YOU left to become an American. I’ve always believed that this is an invasion, because your cultural heritage requires you to divide and conquer. I am not afraid to say this»,

writes Michael in the comments section. While Marilyn says she “hopes that Colorado Springs also rejects mosque construction”.

The Islamic community won’t back down

The community that was rejected, the Islamic Society of Tulsa, is so upset that they have written a press release, shared on social media. In it, they explain that the original plans were even larger than the rejected proposal.

By rejecting our application, the city council not only rejected the recommendation of the planning office, but also the fact that the administration believed that the proposal met all the requirements for dispensation and rezoning, and permission for special use. What makes the rejection incomprehensible is that the council ignored the scaled-down version of the scope that was presented on the day of the hearing. All versions were developed in meetings with City of Broken Arrow staff, and there was goodwill all along the way. Until the democratic process, writes the Islamic Society of Tulsa.

They surmise that fear-mongering and misinformation dominated the discussion, and that Islamophobic rhetoric on social media may have influenced the council’s decision to deny the application. Therefore, they hope that the decision can be reversed and that the city authorities will make an effort to stop Islamophobia. That’s why they’ve set up a splice, Go fund me, to raise money for the appeals process and a fresh start. Three days after the start of the fundraiser, they had reached just 2 per cent of their goal of USD 2 million.

Church wants to help Muslims

Benevolent Americans have both donated to the splice and written countless comments in support of Islam on social media. In addition, a local church has intervened on behalf of the Muslims:

<blockquote

My heart broke last night as I stood with my Muslim neighbours at the Broken Arrow City Council meeting, where a few thousand people gathered to discuss the building of a mosque. What was on display was not just a zoning debate, but a painful mix of fear, prejudice and Christian triumphalism. My heart ached as I watched proud, loving and capable Muslims of all ages sit quietly and respectfully, while their neighbours stood at the microphone and talked about them in ways no one should ever have to endure,” writes minister Marlin Lavanhar, in a post also shared by his church, the liberal All Souls Unitarian Church.

There he continues with a speech he was supposed to make at the open meeting about the mosque, but there was no room for it. The priest writes, among other things:

I am Reverend Marlin Lavanhar, senior pastor of All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa – for 25 years I have been a minister in this community. I currently have over 200 families from Broken Arrow in my church. We hear the pain of our Muslim neighbours whose families and faith are questioned or distrusted by the community they call home. And I hear fear on the other side – fear of safety, fear born of a world that feels frightening and divided. Fear of the “other” has a long and painful history in Oklahoma. From violent conflicts with tribal nations, to the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, to the Oklahoma City bombing.

The priest could have mentioned the Boston Marathon bombing, or 9/11, but he does not. Nor does he mention that the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), which bought land for a mosque in Tulsa, is considered by several sources to be affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, which Trump and his government want to terrorise.

The Brotherhood?

NAIT was established in 1973 in Indiana by the Muslim Students Association (MSA) of the United States and Canada, by some of the same Muslim Brotherhood members who started the MSA.

As Marco Rubio prepares to terrorise the Muslim Brotherhood, the North American Islamic Trust, named in Brotherhood documents and terrorism cases, retains ownership of hundreds of American mosques. In other words, the organisation behind the Tulsa mosque plans. An independent assessment of NAIT’s assets, from the early 2000s, showed that the organisation controlled approximately 332 properties – accounting for 27 percent of America’s approximately 1,200 mosques at the time.

Millions of dollars for mosque construction

Jewish Onliner, a new online newspaper that uses AI to combat anti-Semitism and extremism that threatens Western values, writes:

«In an announcement in 2023 in conjunction with its 50th anniversary, NAIT stated that it now serves as a trustee for “400+ waqf institutions in the United States and Canada.” Despite declaring income below $25,000 annually to avoid filing IRS tax returns, documents show that NAIT has “made millions of dollars in interest-free loans” to Islamic centres and owns properties worth hundreds of millions across the US.

Federal court records, congressional testimony and public documents show that this organisation – the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) – was explicitly listed in the Muslim Brotherhood’s own 1991 strategic planning document. NAIT was also named as an unindicted co-conspirator in America’s largest terrorist financing case.

Wikipedia has roughly the same figures for the number of mosques in the US, stating that the North American Islamic Trust is behind about a quarter of the mosques.

NAIT facilitates the establishment of mosques (such as the Dar Al Hijrah Islamic Center near Washington DC, whose site was purchased on 19 June 1983 by NAIT) and Islamic schools by providing limited interest-free loans to needy communities through an investment project called the Islamic Centers Cooperative Fund (ICCF). Approximately 8 per cent of this fund goes annually to support communities in acquiring and improving mosques. The remainder is invested in property and other investments, writes Wikipedia. And further:

«In 2007, federal prosecutors brought charges against the Holy Land Foundation for allegedly funding terrorist activities by Hamas and other Islamic terrorist organisations. NAIT was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the case, along with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and ISNA. Al Ahram Weekly said American “Muslims [were] witnessing a smear campaign,” insisting instead that the aforementioned groups “represent the views and interests of the mainstream American Muslim community.

So we know that.</p